Chapter 159: Even a Cold Heart Has Fractures

Song Kai was right in the middle of a shower when he heard Hua Yuyue scream. Startled and forgetting to put on clothes, he bolted straight into the bedroom.

Once inside, Song Kai heard the distinct sound of a handgun being cocked. However, the intruder had not yet entered and was only just reaching the doorway.

Without hesitation, Song Kai drew his own pistol and called out to Wu Hongying in the other bedroom, "There are assassins. Be alert."

"Got it."

Then came silence.

Song Kai breathed a sigh of relief. Holding the handgun in his right hand, he instinctively reached into his pockets with his left hand to grab a few steel spikes.

After fumbling twice and failing to put them in, he suddenly froze. *Damn it, I don't have any pockets! I'm completely naked right now!*

Gritting her teeth, Hua Yuyue glared furiously at Song Kai. "Bastard, what are you standing there for? Go put on some clothes! It's disgusting!"

Song Kai hastily pulled on a pair of pants.

At that moment, with a loud bang, the door was blown open, followed by a flashbang and a mini tear gas canister thrown inside.

"Shit!"

This time, Song Kai didn't dare to be careless. He soaked a piece of clothing with water from a desk cup, wiped his eyes, and rushed toward the doorway.

The people outside had pulled out all the stops, clearly intending to leave no survivors and wipe everyone out.

While tear gas is soluble in water, his eyes were still burning, causing tears to stream down uncontrollably. Fortunately, Song Kai didn't need to breathe.

Just then, two masked figures burst into the room.

Song Kai didn't hold back. With two rapid *bangs*, his bullets flew straight toward their gas masks.

*Crash!*

The gas masks shattered, and both men instantly collapsed to the floor.

Right at that instant, a burst of submachine gun fire erupted. *Rat-tat-tat!*

Startled, Song Kai dropped and rolled across the floor, retreating into his bedroom and taking cover behind the wall.

Taking advantage of the opening, three black-clad men wearing body armor surged into the living room, taking cover behind the sofa. Keeping their gas masks on, they kept their eyes locked on Song Kai's position.

"Heh, truly formidable. No wonder the Black Mountain Society suffered such a crushing defeat at your hands," a voice sneered. "However, Song Kai, you have no chance of escaping today. Why not join me and go see Big Brother Da? Perhaps you'll still find a way to live."

The man spoke rapidly while signaling his companion to prepare for the next move.

The speaker was none other than Zhuifeng (Chasing Wind).

Zhuifeng rarely spoke much, and whenever he did talk a lot, it meant only one thing: he was about to kill someone!

His subordinate nodded, understanding Zhuifeng's intent. He pulled out a grenade, ready to hurl it into Song Kai's bedroom.

Hidden in the bedroom, Song Kai couldn't see what they were doing.

Just then, with a sudden, deafening crack—

A gunshot rang out, and the subordinate instantly crashed to the ground, a bullet hole right between his eyebrows.

Zhuifeng was momentarily stunned, then quickly executed a double roll, diving to the opposite side of the sofa.

However, Zhuifeng's other subordinate wasn't as fortunate. His reaction time was a fraction of a second too slow, and Wu Hongying's bullet struck him squarely in the chest, sending him crashing to the floor.

A chill ran down Zhuifeng's spine. He realized he had not only severely underestimated Song Kai, but he had also vastly underestimated the others in the apartment.

Seeing Zhuifeng isolated, Song Kai fired two rapid shots in his direction and simultaneously charged forward.

As Zhuifeng raised his submachine gun to fire, Song Kai flicked his left hand. *Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh*—three steel spikes shot through the air, embedding themselves deeply into Zhuifeng's arm.

The submachine gun dropped to the floor.

Zhuifeng rolled, a dagger materializing in his hand, and slashed toward Song Kai.

Song Kai delivered a ferocious kick.

Three of Zhuifeng's ribs snapped as he crashed to the ground.

He stared at Song Kai in terror. Only now did Zhuifeng realize that he and Song Kai were simply not in the same league.

It wasn't just his extraordinary marksmanship; even if he hadn't been injured, it would have been impossible to dodge that kick!

"Why did you come—*Bang!*"

Even as Song Kai was in the middle of questioning him, a gunshot echoed, and Zhuifeng's head, along with his gas mask, blew apart in an instant.

Song Kai turned his head to look at Wu Hongying.

Wu Hongying wrapped a wet towel around her nose and snapped, "Are you a complete moron? Didn't you see he had a grenade on him? A guy like that might pull the pin at any second and take you down with him."

Song Kai gave Wu Hongying a thumbs-up.

Next came opening the windows for ventilation, clearing away the bodies, and scrubbing the floors.

The tear gas was sickeningly foul, but fortunately, it was easy to clean. A thorough scrub with water made things much better.

Once the windows were open, nearby neighbors soon started coughing and cursing, demanding to know who was burning eggs in the middle of the night and making the place smell so disgusting.

After hours of busywork, the police finally hauled the bodies away.

Song Kai let out a long breath of relief.

Wu Hongying and Tang Ying were utterly exhausted. After tidying up the apartment, the two women went straight to bed.

Song Kai took another shower, then sat beside Hua Yuyue wearing only a pair of boxers to examine her condition.

"What kind of symptoms do you experience when the poison flares up?" Song Kai asked.

Hua Yuyue didn't want to answer, but seeing his serious expression, she reluctantly replied, "Nothing special. Just pain all over—from my internal organs down to my skin. Heat, my whole body burns from the inside out, and bleeding. That's it."

Song Kai nodded, scribbling furiously on a piece of paper. Finishing quickly, he said, "I'll write you a prescription. It includes ingredients used in the antidote like coptis and mint, alongside some madder root and dragon's blood that I'll compound myself. While I can't guarantee a single dose will cure you completely, taking it continuously for half a month will definitely neutralize the poison. I'll pick up the medicine tomorrow, and we'll see if you still flare up in three days."

Hua Yuyue remained silent.

Song Kai shook his head and said, "Ah, it seems a certain beautiful lady doesn't trust my medical skills. Let me tell you, when it comes to Traditional Chinese Medicine, if I claim to be second, no Grand Master of National Medicine would dare claim first. Tsk tsk."

"Disgusting! Shut your mouth!" Hua Yuyue refused to appreciate his efforts in the slightest and simply closed her eyes.

Song Kai shrugged, then rolled out a woven mat on the floor and sat down cross-legged.

Today's battle had depleted the Nine Thunder internal energy in his dantian, and he needed to replenish it immediately.

He took out the black silkworm pupa and quickly began absorbing the spiritual energy radiating from it.

In the past, Song Kai's dantian couldn't store internal energy, and thunder-attribute qi could only be kept in his meridians, meaning he could only hold a tiny amount at a time. Now that his dantian had been opened up, its storage capacity was much greater.

Spiritual energy poured rapidly into his body, eventually transforming into thunderous internal energy and being stored away. About two hours later, the black silkworm pupa completely turned grayish-white, cracked open with a soft *snap*, and split apart.

Song Kai opened his eyes, crushed the bug inside the pupa with his foot, and tossed it into the trash can.

Then, he simply lay down on the mat and went to sleep.

On the bed, Hua Yuyue quietly opened her eyes. She slowly turned her head to look at the blood-bathed bat pupa in the trash can, speechless.

Such a dangerous object, yet Song Kai actually treated it like a tonic to absorb spiritual energy!

*Has this guy lost his mind?!*

*Where on earth did he even get a blood bat pupa?!*

Hua Yuyue stared at Song Kai, pondering everything the man had done. For reasons unknown, a strange feeling stirred deep within her heart for the very first time—a desire to draw closer, a desire to understand him.

Hua Yuyue felt a hint of astonishment. She had always been a cold person, completely devoid of passion for life. She had always considered herself superior, detached from the petty amusements of ordinary mortals. To her, the bustling masses who toiled for survival and laughed or cried over relationships were nothing more than lower-level creatures.

In Hua Yuyue's heart, she didn't like to cry, didn't care to laugh, didn't care about pain, and didn't mind hardship. She had no interest in fine food, felt only aversion toward men, sneered at wealth, and looked upon power with utter indifference.

The sole purpose of her existence was to cultivate, to survive, to complete missions, obtain the antidote, and continue cultivating endlessly.

Yet at this moment, Hua Yuyue suddenly felt that living a life like Song Kai's might not be so bad after all.

She abruptly turned her head and quickly closed her eyes. She disliked this feeling—the feeling of becoming human! She was a deity, a deity devoid of emotions. Aside from cherishing her own life, everything else was utterly meaningless!

Hua Yuyue forced herself to calm her racing heart, purging all distracting thoughts, and slipped back into a state of cultivation.

After sleeping for a little over two hours, Song Kai crawled up.

"What a wonderful day!"

Song Kai stretched lazily.

Hua Yuyue opened her eyes and glared at him furiously. "Bastard, next time make sure your ugly little thing calms down before you get up!"

Song Kai chuckled with a grin. "Consider yourself lucky to get a preview, little beauty. I'm off to buy your antidote now."

Just as he spoke, his phone rang.

Song Kai picked up the phone and checked the screen; it was a call from Jiang Yujing.

"What is it?" Song Kai asked. "Rest assured, I haven't forgotten to cure your corpse poison."

"No, get over here quickly! Come to Little Stone Village. Damn it, what on earth is happening to me..." Jiang Yujing's voice sounded panicked and vulgar.